


It's 3 AM

by TeaLeavesandGentleBreezes



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Bending (Avatar TV), Angst with a Happy Ending, Explicit Language, How Do I Tag, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Miscommunication, My First Fanfic, One Shot, Post-Break Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27854686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaLeavesandGentleBreezes/pseuds/TeaLeavesandGentleBreezes
Summary: Sokka was drunk. Really drunk. And it was late. Very late.Looking at his phone, with its 7% battery symbol, he finally swallowed his pride and did the one thing he really didn’t want to. He called Zuko. It’s 3am and Sokka has already called everyone he knows. No one is answering the fucking phone.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 184





	It's 3 AM

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This has been sitting around finished forever because I'm too chicken to post, but I reread it and I don't hate it so why not? 
> 
> This work was thought up while listening to Halsey - 3AM and 11 Minutes specifically - and that's where a few lines and the title come from.

Sokka was drunk. Really drunk. And it was late. Very late. 

Looking at his phone, with its 7% battery symbol, he finally swallowed his pride and did the one thing he really didn’t want to. He called Zuko. It’s 3am and Sokka has already called everyone he knows. No one is answering the fucking phone. 

Zuko, the last contact on the list, is his last hope. The last person he would want to talk to right now, having spent the last 8hrs drinking his memory away. 

It rings 1, 2, 3, 4 times before it goes to voicemail. 

“Will someone please pick up the fucking phone?” is all Sokka moans out before hanging up and nearly tossing the blasted thing across the street. 

It’s cold and it’s raining and Sokka is exhausted, drunk off his ass, at least 10 miles from home, and now he is crying. This has to be the shittiest cherry on top of the shittiest month of his entire life. Even his mother’s death, as agonizing as it had been, didn’t seem to compare anymore. At least he knew it was coming, cancer slowly stealing her away. 

Zuko had been out of the blue. 

Sokka had been happier than ever before, dreaming of a future and doing everything in his power to make it a reality. 

And then they were done. There was someone else. Someone else making Zuko happy. Someone better than Sokka. Someone Sokka had trusted. Someone who knew exactly how serious Sokka had been about Zuko. Someone who had rammed a sword through Sokka’s back. 

Jet. 

Fucking Jet. Fucking lying, deceptive, cruel, evil, bastard, asshole, Jet. 

If Sokka ever saw him again he was going to kill him. And go to prison with a smile on his face. 

Sokka was ripped from his thoughts when his phone started ringing, tears springing fresh as Sam Smith’s ‘Stay With Me’ played loudly. He’d forgotten about the ringtone. 

He hesitated for only a moment before sliding the green bubble up and bringing the phone to his face. 

“Hello?” is all he managed to choke out, trying to not let his tears make it through the line. 

“You called,” an aggravated sounding Zuko clipped back. “This better not be some drunk breakdown. I’m not in the fucking mood right now.”

Sokka’s heart shattered. He certainly knew where he stood now. Crumpled on the floor crying over someone who clearly couldn’t care less about the man he left destroyed in his wake. 

“Sokka? What did you want?” Zuko asks, slightly less aggressively. 

Sokka breathed deeply, pushing the sobs to the side long enough to speak. 

“I’m stranded at the Lunar Lounge. I can’t find my wallet and it must have been missing for a while because whoever has it already emptied my pathetic bank account. My card was declined and they almost called the cops and I can’t pay for an Uber and no one will answer the phone,” he rushed out, afraid if he stopped Zuko would hear him cry. 

“You didn’t try Jet,” Zuko said, so matter of factly. Like he knew for a fact Jet’s phone hadn’t rang. And Sokka was going to be sick. They must be together. No wonder he didn’t want to be bothered. 

“No, I didn’t think that was a wise choice,” Sokka forced out through clenched teeth. “And I don’t have his number anymore anyway.”

“That seems petty,” Zuko says after a moment and Sokka snaps. 

“Petty? Fucking petty? You’re lucky I haven’t torn your fucking boy toy apart with my goddamn bare hands. Petty would be acting out all of my revenge fantasies instead of just deleting his number so I’m not tempted,” Sokka spat out, lunging to his feet and walking down the street aimlessly. 

“You’re a piece of work you know that? Pointing out the fact I didn’t call Jet, rubbing it in my face that you’re obviously together to know that. Why the fuck would I call that piece of shit back stabbing…” and then the clouds parted and in the light of the full moon the spirits gifted Sokka the perfect oppurtunity. On a silver platter. 

“I stand corrected. Your precious lover boy is right here, making out with a couple of girls. I guess he isn’t as into you as you are into him. I’d say sorry but it would be a lie. And now his ass is mine,” Sokka growled before hanging up. 

Racing across the street Sokka was just about to snatch Jet by the collar of his shirt, the other boy completely oblivious to his impending doom, when Sam Smith once again shattered the silence. 

Jet flinched back, turning to look at Sokka, his face slowly turning into a smile before he noticed Sokka’s expression. 

Sokka ignored the phone’s ringing and proceeded to grab Jet’s collar as there was silence once again, except for the gasping of the two girls as they quickly unwrapped themselves from around Jet and scurried away. 

“Sokka? What’s wrong? I haven’t heard from you since our last meeting. I was going to call you on Monday to see what you thought... When I couldn’t get ahold of you I put it through your mailslot. Did he find it or something? …” Jet was confused, it was obvious, and his words were confusing Sokka, who couldn’t decide if he should beat him to a pulp or ask him what the fuck he is thinking talking to him like that, when once again that damn song burst out. He grabbed it out of his pocket and quickly answered.

“Fuck off. You aren’t going to save his scrawny ass from what he has coming,” Sokka spat, his eyes glaring daggers as his large hand maintained control of a now struggling Jet’s collar. 

“Sokka! Wait! I’m already on the way. I’m 11 minutes away. We need to talk. Just wait at the Lunar Lounge. Please. We really, really need to talk. You can wait for me to gsee t there. I’m only 11 minutes away!” Zuko shouted rapidly. 

Sokka stared at Jet, torn between a desire to beat the man bloody and a need to hear what Zuko wants to talk about. He releases Jet who turns and disappears into the shadows. 

“Ok,” Sokka says before hanging up and heading back down the street to wait.

23 minutes later Sokka is crying once again. He’s a fucking fool. A spirits damned idiot. Of course he fell for the ploy. He had let Jet go believing Zuko. Believing the desperation in his voice was about him and not about trying to save Jet. And now it was 4am and Sokka was far worse off than an hour prior. 

11 minutes had passed and then passed again. Zuko wasn’t coming. He had let hope bloom just to have it brutally extinguished once more. 

Standing he tried to rub the tears out of his eyes. He heard a car take the corner down the street quickly and for a moment he considered just throwing himself in front of the car as it passed. 

But it didn’t pass. It came to a screeching halt right before where Sokka stood and a man was jumping out and running to him. Startled, he realized it was Zuko’s familiar Altima parked haphazardly with the door still open in the street. 

“Sokka, I’m so sorry. There’s an accident on the highway and it took forever to get through the detour,” Zuko is saying as he comes to a halt beside the tall, tanned, teary eyed Sokka. 

Sokka is still drunk and his hazy brain is confused and overwhelmed. His heart is broken and yet still swelling at the sight of the gorgeous, tall, slim but oh so muscular man standing next to him looking awkward, worried, and… hopeful? 

Sokka’s heart skips a beat, so content to be with the person it had been yearning for 27 excruciatingly long days, when he remembers. Remembers being cast aside carelessly as if he had never mattered to Zuko. And then his heart hardened once more. 

“Whatever. Get me within a mile of the apartment and we can put this behind us. I'll Venmo you $20 when I get the money for the trouble,” Sokka said moving towards the car, ignoring the pained look on the other man’s face. 

Zuko follows him and gets back into the car, waiting for Sokka to buckle up before he starts driving. 

The silence is deafening, completely overwhelming, and not improving Sokka’s mood. He hates silence. 

“You said you wanted to talk,” Sokka snapped. 

“Can we wait until I’m not driving?” Zuko asks quietly after a pause. 

“I’m getting out when we stop,” Sokka counters, his mood bringing the temperature down in the car. 

Silence returns for a moment but eventually Zuko clears his throat and begins. 

“A week before...before it happened, Azula called me and asked me to come get tea with her," Zuko begins, his hands gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white, his whole body rigid.

"When I got there she was nervous and fidgety and eventually she showed me a picture. A picture of you and Jet all cozy in a booth, sitting together at a fancy restaurant, smiling and obviously laughing," Zuko continued, looking Sokka's way. Sokka immediately knew which night he was talking about. This… this wasn't going how he expected. 

"And she told me that she was at dinner the other night, the night you said you had to work late to finish a design. And that’s when she saw you two on what looked like a date,” Zuko said slowly, his voice thin. 

“And I came up with a 100 reasons why she was wrong and just being presumptuous and you would never do that to me. I knew beyond a doubt that you would never put me through that," Zuko said, shaking his head with a grim smirk on his lips.

"Then the next week you had to work late 2 more times and it just… became so obvious. But I still couldn’t believe it. So I tried to talk to you," Zuko said, through a clenched jaw. 

"And when I mentioned Jet you got this look on your face that I couldn’t read and you stormed off and I assumed Azula was right…” Zuko said, his hands shaking and his grip on the steering wheel white knuckled and jerky. 

He was starting to veer and Sokka truly regretted his insistance that this not wait. But Sokka was so confused and couldn’t wait. 

“But your phone call made me think, made me hope, that maybe it had all been a big misunderstanding? That maybe that conversation didn’t play out like I thought it did…” Zuko choked out. 

“Pull over,” Sokka demanded, thankful that Zuko had avoided the highway on the way back across town. Once the car was in park he finally trusted himself to look at Zuko, who was looking ahead of him but still sneaking looks at Sokka out of the corner of his eye. 

“So you thought I was fucking around with Jet?” Sokka asked, wanting to make sure this conversation was clarifying rather than confusing. 

Zuko nodded his head as his hands gripped the wheel tighter and he refused to look at Sokka, a single tear escaping his red eyes. 

“And I thought you were fucking around with Jet,” Sokka stated firmly. Zuko finally looked over and his face was a jumble of emotion - pain, confusion, elation, hurt. 

“But why would you think that?” Zuko asked, incredulous. 

“Because you sat me down awkwardly and started talking about how someone had come between us and you were done settling and we just needed to break up! And no one had come between us on my end so what was there left to assume?! You said Jet’s name and I fucking saw red and had to storm out before I did something regrettable,” Sokka asserted, his own tears returning, remembering the pain of that night. 

“But why were you out with him? Looking like a couple? Basically on top of eachother in that damn booth. And laughing through your whole dinner?” Zuko demanded after sitting there with a gaping mouth for a moment. 

“Because we were working on a project together!” Sokka snapped. “And why didn’t you just fucking ask instead of just fucking ending it?” Sokka demanded, the pain evident in his voice. 

“Because there’s literally no reason for you two to be working on a project together! I mean come on Sokka, even now that sounds like bullshit. What the fuck would you two collaborate on? He’s a fucking jewelry designer and you’re an astrophysist!” Zuko shot back, still struggling to believe that Sokka hadn’t strayed. Why wouldn’t he. Zuko was nothing but trouble and trauma and drama and he was sure it was exhausting to the bubbly sarcasm and meat guy. See, even then he reduced the brilliance that is *Sokka* into sarcasm and meat. He was a terrible boyfriend...

“Gee, I wonder what I could possibly want to work on with a jewelry designer! It’s not like we were approaching a pretty big milestone. I couldn’t possibly have been working on a surprise for you. No, not asshole cheating bastard Sokka. He would never spend months working on something to try to make you happy just to find out you’re fucking the guy helping me design you a damn wedding ring!!!” Sokka shouted, his voice cracking as his heart broke. The pain was still so raw, so soul consuming that he couldn’t breath. 

“What?” Zuko gasped, nearly inaudible it was so quiet. His tears were falling in earnest now. His face on a repetitive loop of crumbling before breaking out into a smile just to crumble once more. 

“I was designing you a fucking wedding ring! So I could propose tonight, on our 5 year anniversary. I had reservations at your favorite noodle house and tickets to a play and then sprung for the fucking VIP section at Lunar Lounge. It was all planned out, and Jet was helping me design the perfect ring. We finally agreed on the final version the night you broke up with me,” Sokka choked out, his shoulders falling and his fingernails digging into his palms until there were 8 bleeding crescent shaped cuts. 

“And then like an idiot I decided to try to enjoy the night anyway,” Sokka laughed through sobs. “And I left the play before intermission and came to drink my problems away because it was so fucking painful. Thank god I prepaid the $1,700 for the VIP section because I think that’s what kept my ass out of jail tonight when I couldn’t pay the $300 tab,” Sokka laughed, it sounding empty even to his own ears. 

“You were gonna propose?” Zuko squeaked out. 

“Yeah, dumbass. I was kind of head over heels for you,” Sokka says grimly. 

Zuko crumbles now. He falls in on himself, sobs wracking his entire body. He somehow manages to bring his knees up between the steering wheel and his chest and buries his face in their boney edges while completely letting himself go. The sobs are loud and violent enough to shake the car. Was. Was. Was. Is all he can hear. He was head over heels. Was. 

Sokka freezes, uncertain how to proceed, still hurting, but hating to see Zuko like this. He doesn’t move for several minutes, not until Zuko finally speaks and breaks his heart all over again. 

“My father was right! He was always right! I am so fucking stupid! A fucking worthless dumbass! A half-blind idiot!” Zuko wails, his hands beating his head.

Instantly Sokka is pulling him into his lap, across the console. Sokka gets him maneuvered into his lap and can finally grab his hands, stopping them before they can make contact once more. 

“No you’re not, Zuko. You aren’t stupid or worthless...” Sokka starts but is quickly interrupted. 

“Yes I fucking am! I somehow manage to trick someone so perfect into loving my defective ass, making me happier than I ever deserved to be, and I threw it in the trash on some mission to self-sabotage the only good thing I’ve ever fucking had!” Zuko shouts, twisting around until he can see Sokka’s face. 

“For fuck’s sake I literally broke your damn heart being a complete self absorbed jackass and here you are, holding me and trying to tell me I’m not as bad as I know I am!” Zuko choked out, spiraling quickly. 

“That’s what I threw away! A love I didn’t even deserve. And why? Because I’m a coward, too afraid to just talk to you!” 

Sokka held Zuko tighter. He has an emotional hurricane of his own thrashing around in his chest, but he had to calm Zuko first. 

Things were starting to make more sense. As the booze slowly wore off, Sokka thought about how obvious it was that Zuko was perpetually waiting for everything to fall apart. How even after all these years he lacked any amount of self-worth or confidence, positive that Sokka was a fool for loving him. He’d said as much several times. 

“Shhhhh… It’s ok. You’re ok. We’re ok. It’s all going to work out. Shhhh…..” Sokka began his normal mantra that he used whenever Zuko had a breakdown, but this time, for the first time, it didn’t help. 

“Nothing is ok!” Zuko shrieked, his body shaking, Sokka’s shoulder soaked in tears. “We aren’t ok! We aren’t even together! This is the first time we’ve even spoken, let alone seen each other, in 27 days!” 

Sokka tried to hide the small smile that appeared when he realized he wasn’t the only one counting the days. And clearly wasn’t the only one who was miserable. 

Did all of this suck? Yeah, so fucking bad. Had it been the most painful experience of his life? Absolutely. Would it stop him from jumping right back in where he left off? No. Fucking. Way. He would take Zuko with every one of his “faults” (read traumas) as long as the other man wanted him. And based on his current state, Sokka felt it was safe to assume he was wanted there. With Zuko. 

“You know the worst part of those 27 days?” Sokka asked gently. Zuko simply wailed. So he continued, laying his heart on the line. 

“The entire time, even as I cried and drank and wallowed in my misery, even as I pictured you and Jet together until I was puking, I wanted you. Every day I was surrounded by reminders of why I was going to propose, of what I loved the most about you, of exactly how sure I was that you were it for me,” Sokka began, his voice soothing, Zuko holding back sobs to be able to hear him, even as the words twisted like a knife in his gut. 

“I woke up reaching for your heat, freezing with the sudden absence of love in my bed, in an unfamiliar room that held no happy memories. Memories like breakfast in bed or playing video games or tickle fights or serious conversations that made everything better afterwards," Sokka said smiling as he finally allowed himself to happily relive those memories. 

“I saw memes and read articles or heard stories and I immediately went to share them with you only to remember that wasn’t allowed anymore, you’d moved on. I got stressed out and wanted to collapse into your warm arms and have you hold me tight and tell me everything was going to be alright. But my apartment was empty and cold and void of any comfort," and Sokka couldn't help but chuckle. 

“And I could see you rearranging the furniture to improve the feng shui, digging out a throw to make it cozier, lighting a candle for ambiance and assuring me it wasn’t that bad and I’m just being dramatic. Proving I even knew how to make it better. So what did I do? I’d grab a beer and hide under the covers trying to make time rewind. ”

Zuko looks worse than before, knowing how much pain he’d caused the pair of them, but Sokka knew that to truly move past it there couldn’t be any secrets, they both needed to be brutally honest. 

“A couple nights I went out and got trashed. Picked up random guys with black hair and skinny legs and brown eyes - no one else has your shade of gold. And every single time I’d freeze right as we were getting hot and heavy and I’d have to rush out before they saw me crying. Because none of them were you no matter how closely they may resemble you.” 

“I cried to Katara non-stop but wouldn’t let her interfere in any way until she finally got fed up and demanded I stop calling her and crying or allow her to beat your ass," Zuko cringed even harder, but Sokka chuckled. 

"I stopped calling because even as I imagined the satisfaction your pain would bring me I couldn’t handle it, not even in my own mind, causing you to suffer more than you already have,"Sokka said, pausing for a moment. He was terrified but it was now or never - everything needed to be laid bare. 

“I’ve been carrying your ring around for the last week, ever since Jet shoved it through the mail slot. At first I was going to take it to him and find a way to kill him with it, get real creative, make him pay for what he’d done to us, to me. But I couldn’t seem to bring myself to do it, so I just carried it around waiting for the perfect moment when I would stumble onto the place to hawk it into oblivion. Some opportune lake or trench that would present itself when the time was right,” Sokka continued, steadily rubbing Zuko’s back with one hand while wrestling with a small box in his pocket with his other hand. 

“But I also never found a good place to throw it away. And yet I’ve continued putting it in my pocket, carrying around the greatest symbol of my pain, feeling it burn me through my pants. Even tonight. As I got ready to go on what would have been the most important date of my life, now a glaring reminder of how wrong I had been, I picked it up off the dresser and put it in my pocket, hoping I could finally get it out of my possession tonight once and for all,” Sokka said, finally wrangling the box out of his pocket and holding it up, both their eyes wet with tears as they looked at the black velvet box. 

“And I found the perfect spot. I forgot about that huge lake with the waterfall that’s pretty close to the theater. When I stormed out of Love Amongst the Dragons and started angry walking away I ended up at the top of the waterfall. It was perfect. I fished it out and wound my arm and just as I was about to release it my fingers refused to cooperate. They clutched it and refused to drop it even as I stood there falling apart, aware that would have been the perfect place to propose, and then we could have celebrated at the Lunar Lounge. It all would have been perfect. And even as I pictured you fucking Jet my treacherous hands would not let it drop,” Sokka said, his voice hitching. Zuko's face was oscillating through so many emotions, Sokka hoped he knew what he was doing. 

“And here we are, several hours later, back together, crying our hearts out, realizing this whole thing was just a massive misunderstanding -no one fucked Jet- and my hands are buzzing, like they knew this moment was barreling forward and they're ready to do what they practiced a thousand times, having prevented me from making a huge mistake right before showtime," Sokka continued, his blue eyes carefully monitoring the shaking bundle of man in his arms. 

Zuko gulped, golden eyes darting between Sokka's hand and his face, trying to gauge what was happening. 

"This is absolutely not how I pictured this playing out, and it's a few hours later than I had planned, but who am I to question fate?" Sokka said, sitting up straighter, helping Zuko to sit up, hopeful golden eyes latched onto his. 

"Zuko, being apart from you for those 27 days was excruciating, every moment reminding me that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Life was empty and pointless and painful and awful. Will you please marry me and make sure it never happens again?" Sokka rasps out, his fingers opening the box and revealing his masterpiece.

Silence was only interrupted by another sob. Sokka's heart raced and his brain screamed that he was a fool setting himself up for more heartache. 

"How...how could you possibly still love me after what I've done?" Zuko finally, brokenly, demanded. 

"Did you fuck Jet?" Sokka asked, his heart stuttering. 

"No! But I broke us up and blew something tiny out of proportion and ruined everything!" Zuko gasped. 

"You mean you fell into old predictable patterns of self doubt and then I failed to recognize the obvious even after all these years?" Sokka asked pointedly. 

"I failed to give you credit and trust after all these years!" Zuko counteracts.

"And I believed that you would just start fucking someone else even after the millions of ways you've proved your love," Sokka gently reminded. 

"Sokka, you can't… you can't still love me. Please don't play with me. I'm sorry. I'll be sorry for the rest of my life. I promise. Please don't play with me like this," Zuko begged, still unable to just believe he deserves love. 

"Zuko, please look at me," Sokka gently cupped his cheek and guided his gaze upwards until their eyes met, his thumb lazily caressing Zuko's scar. 

"I love you so fucking much. More than should be humanly possible. Yet I do. I loved you even when I was confused and thought you'd moved on. I loved you every second we were apart and I love you twice as much now that we're back in each other's arms. Please, I am begging you, if you love me at all, please marry me and stop torturing us both," Sokka chokes out over the panic. At one time he was certain Zuko would say yes. Now he wasn't sure. 

"Are you sure?" Zuko asked quietly, looking up at Sokka with hopeful yet cautious eyes. 

"Easiest decision of my life," Sokka assures. 

"Then yes, yes, spirits yes!" Zuko said brokenly, hesitantly reaching out.

“Oh thank the spirits!” Sokka exclaimed, taking the ring out of the box and gently grabbing Zuko’s left hand. 

“I know that the guys don’t typically wear their rings until after they get married, but why should girls get all the fun?” Sokka asked, slowly guiding the thick band onto his ring finger. 

The ring was made of meteorite with two delicate inlays of silver wrapping around the band, representing their respective swords. Then three small stones sat in the center, a glittering diamond between a deep red garnet and a brilliant blue topaz (their birthstones and favorite colors) - he truly hoped all the meticulously crafted details stood out. 

“Oh, Sokka! It’s so beautiful! I’m so sorry I fucked everything up…” Zuko said brokenly, through tears. 

“Hey, hey, hey it’s ok. Everything is ok. It was an important lesson for us both to learn and we figured it out just in time,” Sokka soothed, fingers gently caressing Zuko’s cheek. 

“But look at this thing, Sokka! I would bet next month’s rent that this is meteorite to represent your space sword, two silver bands for my dao blades, our fucking birthstones or favorite colors depending on how you look at it. This is us in ring form and you planned a night just for me and you spent it crying…” Zuko rambled, overwhelmed and blinking repeatedly at the ring resting on his finger, feeling heavy and hot. 

“Zuko, Zuko calm down. Listen to my words. This was an important lesson that we needed to learn and look at us sliding in right under the wire. Now we can enter into our engagement wiser and more appreciative of our love than ever before,” Sokka said, running his hand soothingly across Zuko’s back. 

"I don't deserve you," Zuko hiccups.

"Yes, you do. The fact that you don't see that kind of proves me right. You are everything to me. My sunrise and sunset. My life force. Without you I am hollow," Sokka speaks from the heart. 

“Sokka, this last month was the worst of my entire life. Even the pain of recovery after...the burn didn’t compare the heartache I felt being apart from you. And I know I brought it upon myself, causing my own suffering, but I have never been more sure of my love for you.”

“Even when I thought about you and Jet together, how you had picked him over me, the only thing I craved, the only solace I sought, was the weight of your arms. Honestly, in the last few days I had accepted the fact that should you come back to me, grown tired of Jet, I would take you back in a heartbeat. It wouldn’t have mattered even if you had cheated on me, abandoned me for another, I was more than willing to accept any small part of you and your life that you were willing to offer,” Zuko admitted, looking into those dazzling icy blue eyes for the first time in some time. 

“If you’re still willing to take me after this collisal fuck-up then the only possible answer is yes, because I wasn’t certain how I was ever going to endure an empty lifetime lacking your smile, your laughter, your cuddles, your… essense of Sokka that makes everyday not just bareable, but wonderful,” Zuko finished. 

Enough words had been said, enough of their hearts and souls bared, that Sokka didn't reply with words. He let his actions speak for themselves.

Sokka grabbed Zuko by the back of the neck and pressed their lips together, pouring everything into that one point of contact, willing the other to feel his love. His answering moan, lips gasping open to allow Sokka's entrance, made Sokka's heart soar. 

A long while later, when the duo came up for air, Zuko had a sheepish smile on his lips. 

"What's up, Baby?" Sokka asked, carding his calloused hands through silky strands, reveling in being able to say that again. 

"Would you mind letting Katara know about… everything? She's been sending me screenshots of Bailey Sarian videos and while that used to be our thing, the captions have been rather… threatening," Zuko giggled. Straight giggled. And couldn't care less either. 

"Yeah, I think I can manage that," Sokka said with a soft smile, looking down at his fiancée snuggled into his chest. 

Snatching his phone while not jostling the obsidian haired beauty curled on his chest was a task, but he managed. He snapped a quick shot and damn if his heart didn't flutter at the sight. 

Zuko was curled into his chest, engagement/wedding ring obvious, a small smile on his lips. Sokka was looking down with what could only be described as adoration. 

He opened his messages. 

Katara 🌊  
Sokka  
[Image Sent]  
Soooo…. No one fucked Jet. Azula saw me meeting him at the restaurant and Zuko had to use his words...and failed. He said yes!

Katara 🌊   
Could you tell Toph? She owes me $50

Sokka  
I'm sorry whaaaaaaat?

Katara 🌊   
She bet it would take 6 months for you knuckleheads to figure it out. I bet less than a month. 

So I wiiiiiiiiiin. Thanks bro. 

Maybe I'll buy you one of those Starbucks sugar monstrosities to celebrate. 

Oh, and congrats! 🍾 🥂 💍 

Sokka  
Thanks?

And yeah I'll let her know 

"Hey, Baby?" Sokka nearly whispered. His only response was a gentle murmur. 

"Who did you talk to after the breakup?" Sokka asked gently, knowing the reminder would hurt the man in his lap. He was right. Zuko's whole body tensed. 

"Toph and Aang…" came Zuko's quiet reply. 

"Ok, so literally everyone but us knew it was a miscommunication," Sokka concluded. 

"Wh...what do you mean?" Zuko asked, leaning up, eyebrow scrunched to the center. 

"Well I told all 3 of them that you cheated on me with Jet. And you told 2 of the 3, including the 3rd's boyfriend, that I cheated with Jet… so they had to have known. Also, Katara and Toph had a bet going. Katara apparently won $50," Sokka said with a laugh. 

"And literally no one said a fucking word?!" Zuko demanded. 

"I guess they wanted us to figure it out on our own," Sokka replied, placing a kiss on Zuko's rumpled forehead. 

"How long were they gonna let us suffer?" Zuko asked in a daze.

"Well Toph bet it would take 6 months for us to figure it out, so at least that long," Sokka replied. 

"I can't believe them," Zuko said, shaking his head. But he couldn't dwell on it. All his brain could think at this point was a swirling mess of Sokka, Engaged, In Love, Happy. And it was magical. 

For the first time in 27 days, Zuko was happy, and this time he knew it would last forever.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I don't attempt angst very often, and have never attempted a fanfic before, but it was fun to write and exciting to finally share something.


End file.
